Campaign financing emerges as an issue in Senate race

Democrats pushed Wednesday to make campaign financing an issue in the U.S. Senate race between Rep. Edward Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez, leveling an attack against the Republican for turning a blind eye to “secret” outside money that Gomez dismissed as the “height of hypocrisy.”

By Matt Murphy

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Matt Murphy

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 1:20 AM

By Matt Murphy

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 1:20 AM

BOSTON

» Social News

Democrats pushed Wednesday to make campaign financing an issue in the U.S. Senate race between Rep. Edward Markey and Republican Gabriel Gomez, leveling an attack against the Republican for turning a blind eye to “secret” outside money that Gomez dismissed as the “height of hypocrisy.”

Hours after Markey defeated U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the two Congressmen appeared together in a show of solidarity in Boston Wednesday morning, and Markey repeatedly challenged Gomez to sign a pledge to limit spending from outside groups in the weeks leading up to the June 25 special election.

“I’m going to challenge him today, and I’m going to challenge him every day to take the People’s Pledge,” Markey said, referring the agreement struck by former Sen. Scott Brown and Sen. Elizabeth Warren in their race last year to keep outside Super PACs from funneling millions of dollars to Massachusetts to influence the race.

Lynch said that even though he lost he was proud to have signed the pledge with Markey, and said he would be a “full-throated supporter” of his delegation-mate. “I honestly believe if you allow some of these groups to hide who they are and just lob in indiscriminate, false, hostile messages here against one candidate or the other, it’s not good,” he said.

Gomez, a former Navy SEAL and private equity investor from Cohasset, got an early start on the general election campaign trail Wednesday, visiting the Broadway T stop in South Boston to greet commuters. The new face of the GOP called Markey a “poster boy for term limits,” and challenged the 36-year veteran of Capitol Hill to three debates before the election.

Calling it the “height of hypocrisy” for Markey to rail against outside money after taking millions over his career from political action groups and special interests tied to the same industries he regulated in Congress, Gomez refused to sign the pledge.

"Let's be honest about it, you know politicians make pledges because no one trusts them and I think it's kind of the height of hypocrisy when Congressman Markey, who's been taking outside money for the last 30 years from groups he regulates and has control over, and now he wants to ask me to do the same thing?" Gomez told reporters.

"I've been clear from day one, and that is I will only take one pledge and that's the pledge I took when I was a naval officer and that's to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. It's the same pledge my parents took when they came here to become citizens and it's the pledge that I make to the people of Massachusetts," he said.

Markey repeatedly evaded questions about whether he would take the pledge himself even if Gomez refused, eventually saying, “In order to do this correctly, you need two people to take the pledge.”

Page 2 of 3 -
Common Cause Massachusetts plans to hold a press conference on Thursday to release a new report that will show the People’s Pledge to be a success, and to urge Markey and Gomez to negotiate an agreement.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee on Wednesday morning called attention to $1.3 million in special interest money accepted by Markey during the Democratic primary and $3.3 million from political action committees, including over $837,000 from the League of Conservation Voters and tens of thousands from Planned Parenthood and labor organizations.

“Every single contribution that is made to my campaign is completely disclosed, and it’s also limited,” Markey said. “Gabriel Gomez says he’s going to take unlimited amounts of money from undisclosed sources, and then run for office in Massachusetts . . . I’m proud to let people know the League of Conservation voters is with me.”

Markey’s campaign highlighted Gomez’s ties to a group of veterans funded by private donations that was critical of President Obama’s handling of the release of information after the killing of Osama bin Laden. In the midst of the back and forth between the two candidates on Wednesday, actor Robert Redford sent out a fundraising appeal to help raise $150,000 in the next 72 hours for Markey’s general election campaign.

Markey and Lynch came together to project unity after the contested primary as national Republicans began to zero in on the more conservative, blue-collar supporters of Lynch’s campaign that could be ripe for Gomez to pick up.

Rob Collins, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, penned a strategy memo Wednesday morning for how to defeat Markey, suggesting unenrolled voters who backed Lynch could be won over.

“After a particularly ugly primary with former union member (and favorite) Stephen Lynch, these voters are not guaranteed to fall in line behind aloof Ed Markey, a creature of Washington backrooms for the last 4 decades (and a resident of Chevy Chase, Maryland),” Collins wrote.

That scenario is exactly what Democrats are hoping to avoid.

“There’s a wide spectrum of difference between Gabriel Gomez and Ed Markey, quite clearly. I’ve severed with Ed in my vast 10 years in Congress and I can easily point to the difference between the result of having Ed Markey elected to the Senate versus having Gabriel Gomez. The focus should be really what does it bring us to have Mitch McConnell and his view strengthened in the U.S. Senate versus having Ed Markey there as a voice on behalf workers in this state? I think that’s day and night,” Lynch said.

Markey said conversations between his campaign and Gomez about debates has not yet started, but said he was looking forward to going toe-to-toe with the newcomer. “We will be debating. You don’t have to worry about that,” Markey said.

Page 3 of 3 -
As Democrats painted Gomez as a pro-life conservative opposed to gun control and open to cutting Social Security and Medicaid, the Republican nominee opened a familiar line of attack against Markey by describing him as a creature of Washington and out of touch with Massachusetts residents.

“You have somebody here, who literally in 1976, was playing Little League baseball when Congressman Markey first got elected. There can’t be a better poster boy for term limits than Congressman Markey,” Gomez said.

Asked to address the concern that his longevity in Congress could be liability, Markey said, “Anyone who knows me knows I take on the tough issues and I get results,” ticking off successes in 1990s to ban Chinese assault weapons from American markets, confronting cable monopolies, and leading the “green energy revolution.”

State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, Rep. Nick Collins and Maureen Dahill also appeared at the event on Wednesday after Collins conceded the 1st Suffolk District Senate race in South Boston, Dorchester and Mattapan for Forry.